so i am planing to buy my own little welder to fab up some stuff for my car. i live 90 miles away from phoenix were there are real fabricators unlike in my small town. so i plan to just buy a small welder which can tig and weld aluminum and some stainless. well i found 2 options in my price range. trying to stay under $800 so postt up if there is a better option than what i have chosen

1. Clarke Hot Shot Spool Gun Welder, Model# WE6441 $400
seems simple to use and has a spool gun which will let me weld aluminum and some stainless.

2. Lincoln Electric Weld Pak 140 HD Wire Feed Welder $524+ $200 spool gun

i think the lincoln is a better welder but not sure. ill just be welding up my intercooler pipping, and cross over pipes for my turbo set up along with tabs for intercooler and radiator. so not going to be doing anything crazy that i would need a commercial welder for. i will practice alot before starting to weld on my vehicle. any advice is welcome along with welder options thanks

 

neither of those are gonna be worth a **** on aluminum

 

If your looking to weld alot of aluminum look into a diversion tig welder if your gonna buy new. Or look for a used ac/dc tig so you can weld both stainless and aluminum. Like E-Rok said neither of those are gonna be worth a **** on aluminum.

 

yea his best bet is a used ac/dc tig machine if he wants to do alum

mig alum is really only good for thicker metals, and those low-capacity machines wont do a very good job.

 

x2 on what E-rok said.

Since I'm a cheapass't lazy guy, and didn't want to run 220V out to my garage, I ended up making a couple of aluminum exhausts by tacking them with my MIG spoolgun, and then oxy-acetylene welding them. I tried to MIG them completely with the spoolgun, but it just wasn't happening.

Now, on thicker stuff like a guard for the hydraulic pump on my dad's log splitter, the spoolgun is just great. You need an AC/DC TIG welder it seems. I.e. I DO NOT recommend the gas welding of aluminum. It can be done, and can be very functional, but it is ugly.

 

its not ugly is properly done. but ive found its harder to get a good bead with a spoolgun opposed to a push-pull machine

 

Well let me assure you, it's not pretty when I do it! Actually, I've had a few welds that looked good, but not like a nice stack of dimes TIG weld, more like a regular single piece of aluminum-real smooth. And the seal is usually really good too, not really any need for pressure testing.

But what are you referring to when you say "push-pull machine," a regular MIG with no spoolgun?

 

hmmm sounds like you were running real hot, you should be able to get some sort of a tig-effect to the bead.

and yes by push pull i mean no spoolgun, as the higher end mig machines will have rollers in both the machine and in the alum-specific gun to prevent birdnesting.

 

Ah! Clearly I've never used a "higher end" machine then... I never knew those pull rollers existed...

 

This Everlast Power Tig 185 is $849



More information can be found here.
http://www.everlastgenerators.com/Po...o-3910-pd.html

thanks,
Josh

 

very sorry to rez an old thread but i figured its better than starting a new one. Would this welder be suitable for ss manifolds, exhaust and aluminum piping/manifolds?

anyone familiar with their splatter and overall performance?